


Both Hands

by Regionalpancake



Category: Star Trek: Picard
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Ficlet, Implied body dysmorphia around Borg implants, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23376184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Regionalpancake/pseuds/Regionalpancake
Summary: Seven struggles with feelings of disgust towards her Borg implants. To Raffi, that’s unacceptable.
Relationships: Raffi Musiker/Seven of Nine, Seven of Nine/Raffi Musiker
Comments: 23
Kudos: 138





	Both Hands

**Author's Note:**

> I was so excited to see The Moment at the end of episode 10, that I had to write something!

“I’ll never be able to look JL in the eye again!” Raffi and Seven stumbled into their quarters, laughing, arms wrapped around each other.

“He served with Riker! He’s seen worse!” As the door hissed shut, Seven looked the older woman up and down, drinking everything in, before taking her face in her hands and kissing her, still stifling a laugh.

Raffi broke away and picked up where they’d left off on the bridge, trailing kisses lazily down Seven’s neck, smiling as her laugh melted into faint moans coming from the younger women. Snaking her hands under the shoulders of her leather jacket, easing it into the floor.

Seven, face flushed and hair disheveled, led Raffi to their bed, roughly shoving a pile of neatly folded clothes onto the floor.

“First you scandalise my captain, now you mess up my laundry, you’re on a roll!” Raffi laughed.

“What can I say,” Seven shrugged, tucking a gently curled strand of hair behind Raffis ear “It’s not my fault you decided to wear your hair like that.” She said, pulling Musiker onto the bed.

“Noted” Raffi laughed kissing Seven’s ear and guiding Seven’s hand to her thigh.

“No!” Seven snatched back her left hand as if she’d been shocked “Sorry, I don’t usually…”

Raffi felt a cold fear wash over her “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just…thought thats where this was going?”

“It was,” Seven muttered guardedly, brushing her hair out of her own eyes, “Its just, I don’t… use that hand” Seven trailed off, face flushed. Embarrassed and feeling ridiculous she pushed herself up and set at the edge of the bed.

“Can I ask why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” replied Seven, turning over her left hand, revealing the metal implant bisecting her palm.  
Looking closer, Raffi could see the interlacing pattern of implants across Seven’s hand. Like tree roots, piercing up through the skin before spreading out along her fingers. The finger tips; removed maybe or simply encased in metal, lined at their edges by thin, white, scar tissue. Raffi could see where the metal bit through the flesh, creating little isolated pools of skin. Two metal tubules, tools of assimilation just visible under the skin, lay alongside the ligaments.

“Its just...Bjayzl always said they were disgusting,” Seven sighed, thumbing the back of her hand “the implants I mean.”

“Fuck Bjayzl!” Raffi scoffed, moving herself to sit next to Seven on the edge of the bed “It’s not Borg anymore, its you,” her voice softened “and I think you’re perfect.”

“It’s OK,” Seven forced a laugh. “I guess I just got used to being one handed in the bedroom.”

“It’s not OK,” Raffi could feel herself getting angry “it’s bullshit. She had no right to make you feel like part of you is ‘disgusting’!” she sighed “I think its beautiful, like the rest of you.” Raffi said earnestly “May I?” she took Seven’s hand gently in her own, lowering her lips before looking up “Can I kiss your hand? If its too much, I won’t.”

Seven felt a swell of gratitude tighten in her chest “Go ahead.”

Drawing Seven’s hand up to her mouth Raffi traced a line of gentle kisses where the implants met skin, pausing to look up for continued permission from the younger woman. Seven’s shoulders dropped, relaxing, she nodded softly and let her eyes close. The feeling of Raffi’s breath on her skin between kisses, loose strands of her hair brushing gently behind them was so soothing she almost didn’t hear the Ops officer.

“What ever you want, or don’t want to do with your body is your decision and only your decision. But I’m not her, Seven, and what every shit she said about your body is her problem, not yours.” Raffi turned Seven’s palm upward. Heart line. Fate line. Implant. Looking at the band of metal that ran along the base of the fingers. The scar tissue ragged and stretched, ran the edge of the implant. Tiny threads like millipede legs stretched out from the underside, dispersing out just under the surface of the skin before tangling together and diving deeper into tissue. She ran a thumb carefully along the edge of the metal. The surface was scratched, clusters of scuffs, from a lifetime holding a phaser. Raffi ran her lips across the warm metal before kissing the join between it and the skin.

Seven could feel something long held, a tension in her chest, begin to dissipate. The care that Raffi showed made tears prick at the corners of the Ranger’s eyes. She blinked them away hoping Raffi wouldn’t notice.

“I’m not saying now,” Raffi said with one last lingering kiss in Seven’s palm “But if you’re ready sometime and you want to, we’ll try both hands.”


End file.
